1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless networks, and more particularly, to providing network access over different wireless networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
The tremendous growth of the Internet in recent years has fueled the need to provide wireless devices such as mobile telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like with access to information and services available on the Internet. However, providing wireless devices with access to the Internet is complicated by the fact that various different carrier networks with different wireless network characteristics are used domestically and world wide to communicate with the wireless devices. Examples of wireless networks include Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) to name a few, and each of these wireless networks has different data transfer characteristics such as latency, bandwidth, protocols and connection methods. As examples, protocols can be Internet Protocol (IP), Short Messaging System (SMS) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), and connection methods can include packet switched or circuit switched.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional communication system 100 suitable for coupling a mobile communication device to the Internet. Specifically, the communication system 100 includes a mobile communication device 102 that couples through a carrier network 104 to a network gateway 106. The network gateway 106 facilitates the coupling of the mobile communication device 102 with the Internet 108. As is common, various computer systems including computers supporting application server A 110 and application server B 112 are coupled to or form part of the Internet 108. The primary function of the network gateway 106 is to receive data requests from the carrier network 104 and convert them into Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests for use with the Internet 108. Likewise, the network gateway 106 also receives HTTP responses from the Internet 108 and converts them to data responses with a format (e.g., protocol) suitable for use with the carrier network 104.
Conventionally, the network gateway 106 is able to couple a single carrier network 104 to the Internet 108. In such cases, the network gateway 106 is specifically designed and constructed for the particular type of network and its protocols used by the carrier network 104. The network gateway 106 thus provides the various mobile communication devices utilizing the carrier network 104 with Internet access.
However, in the wireless communication world, particularly with mobile telephones, there are a wide variety of carrier networks that are used to provide telephone and data transmission services to mobile telephones. These various carrier networks often have different network types as well as different protocols for transporting data. Hence, the construction of a network gateway for use with one particular carrier network often means that the same network gateway will not support other carrier networks. Consequently, a particular carrier network will need its own network gateway to facilitate the coupling of its associated mobile communication devices with the Internet.
Such limitations are particularly problematic in the case in which a company has several carrier networks that are used to support its various subscribers having mobile communication devices. In such a case, the company will require multiple network gateways in order to couple the various carrier networks to the Internet. Each of these network gateways will be constructed somewhat differently to accommodate the wireless characteristics of the particular carrier network. Besides the general burden of providing multiple network gateways, there are other disadvantages of such an approach. One such disadvantage is that by requiring different carrier networks or information providers to provide their own gateway network is not only an inefficient use of resources but also complicates the management and servicing requirements. Another disadvantage of using multiple network gateways to support the different carrier networks is that software development costs substantially increase.
Thus, there is a need for improved ways to couple different carrier networks to the Internet in an efficient and cost effective way.